Jerusalem, Israel: In a significant finding that could ease water woes, an Israeli company has come up with a new and an inexpensive technology that produces drinking water from thin air.

The discovery is seen as a vital step in alleviating the crisis, especially in developing countries such as India, where water scarcity is a major issue.

Water-Gen has developed an Atmospheric Water-Generation Units using its “GENius” heat exchanger to chill air and condense water vapour.

The company claims that by using the technology, a litre of water can be produced for a mere Rs 1.5, as compared to Rs 15 for a litre of bottled water.

The clean air is passed through the heat exchanger system where it gets dehumidified.

Water is then removed from air and collected in a tank inside the unit, CNN reported.

“From there the water is passed through an extensive water filtration system which cleans it from possible chemical and microbiological contaminations,” co-CEO Arye Kohavi was quoted as saying.

“We believe that the products can be sold to developing countries in different civilian applications. For example in India, (drinking) water for homes is not available and will also be rare in the future” he added.

Kohavi also said that the Atmospheric Water-Generation Unit can be built as a residential unit and serve as a perfect water supply solution for homes in India.

The company says its water generator is more energy efficient than other such companies as it uses the cooled air created by the unit to chill incoming air.

“It looks simple, because air conditioning is extracting water from air. But the issue is to do it very efficiently, to produce as much water as you can per kilowatt of power consumed,” explained Kohavi.

The system can produces 250-800 litres of potable water a day depending on temperature and humidity conditions.

Kohavi says the technology uses only two cents' worth of electricity to produce a litre of water.

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